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Free to Play games

The only free to play games I've played are Team Fortress 2 (but I bought it, so I don't think that counts) and League of Legends. I also tried Age of Empires Online, but it felt like they were taunting me into paying them (quest rewards I can't use, and the like). I wanted to ask the rest of you:

What free to play games are worth playing? MMOs, shooters, arenas, etc.

If you like Worms and Scorched Earth... and if you like Street Fighter 2 and fighting games... Gunbound sits somewhere in-between.

Select a living tank, mythical animal, or magically-animated armor and get to shooting. Each vehicle has its own distinct ammunition and special attacks. One might have a grenade type. Another might have a boomerang. Yet another has sort of a targeting reticle that aims lasers from a point in the sky relative to your position.

The game's technology is aging and I don't really play anymore. But when I did, oh boy did I play. I played at home. I played in the 3rd row of my college auditorium. Very addicting and very fun.

Users can buy avatar items that affect their damage, defense, and other stats. Some of these are limited to cash, but many usable, workable items are available for in-game currency that you earn through winning matches. So it's not terribly unbalanced. Skill can overcome purchased perks (or at least it could when I last played).

GamersFirst has a few titles that are Free to Play (supported by microtransactions). I was interested in both APB and Fallen Earth, so I gave them a shot. The client/downloader is kind of annoying, but it's my first experience with 'proper' MMOs, so maybe it's par for the course.

APB Reloaded is the F2P resurrected APB - basically an MMO GTA clone. Played some on Friday night, and it was fine, except I couldn't put anybody down with the starting gun, and couldn't see any way to buy better weapons without spending real money. With decent guns and a couple of friends I could imagine this being great fun.

Fallen Earth is the closest thing you'll find to a Fallout MMO until Interplay launch FOOL (that's if you don't count Fallout Online 2238). Played a bit on the weekend, but there was some weird bug where most of the world textures didn't load, so I didn't spend much time in it. Could be interesting.

And not related to GamersFirst: FOnline 2238 is actually good fun if you get a few people who are all fans of the original Fallouts to start the game with. Collecting resources and fighting battles is a lot easier with a small group, so you might actually survive for a while.

Memoir '44 is a great example of a well-done free-to-play game. It plays exactly like the boardgame, only with less setting up/breaking down fuss. It may even be the first of its type that I'll spend money on. Maybe.

A Perfect World was pretty fun, I played for about 9 months, and ran with a pretty strong guild/legion that owned territories and participated in the weekly sieges on the EU servers. The graphics hold up very well, but the Asian themed story/items can be a bit confusing sometimes. It's still the only MMO that has a true element of vertical in terms of ground and air PVP as far as I know.

I wouldn't say APB was a GTA clone or a true MMO to be frank. I have been almost enjoying it, but it seems ruined by people parking their cars in front of objectives and completely blocking them off by then blowing the vehicle up.

Now going to give Fallen Earth a go. Was in the beta before launch and it was almost very good but technical problems stopped it from being enjoyable.

There's Vindictus, which is kinda like an MMO with physics, some people really love it - I found it alright in a sort of Dynasty Warriors kind of way. But the story is a big annoying pile of shit and it seemed both shallow and overcomplicated by turns.

I did LOTRO almost right after it went free, and while I enjoyed what I could of it - it becomes immediately clear there's a invisible level/experience cap you run into without purchasing additional content. Even if you completely farm the system for turbine points, you end up only being able to afford one of the dozen or so upper level expansions past level 24ish. As a result the starter areas are almost always full, and then there is this large disconnect from 25 to 55+ of hardly anyone playing - and then all the subscribers / purchasers who have reached the level cap and are active in instancing and sieging etc.

I will say though, it was the best MMO community I have ever been a part of, even if it was brief.